Friday, February 22, 2013

War Against Menstruation Won by Women in Combat

Even as Pentagon funding is being cut, there's no shortage of money to research how military women can win the battle of their period. Both medical and military experts have concluded that victory is achieved by using medications to regulate or even eliminate menstruation.

“People say this in this hushed tone as if the vagina is a secret. If women died without access to indoor plumbing, the human species would not have survived long enough to develop showers.”-- Kayla Williams, retired sergeant, U.S. Army

“Women can use hormonal birth control to regulate or eliminate their periods during deployment,” Kayla Williams said in remarks on Thursday at the Center for National Policy in Washington, D.C. “It’s just not that hard.”

Williams said the military already has equipment designed to make hygiene easier for women in the field, including the female urinary device, or FUD, that allows women to urinate while standing or void into a bottle.

Privacy was a concern, however, when the Defense Department issued a memorandum on Jan. 13, 1994, which ruled that “women shall be excluded from units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground.”

Although there are indications that menstruation is problematic for military women who have been deployed, until recently, there has been relatively little research on menstruation in this environment or use of continuous contraception to manage it.

A study published earlier this year indicated that, even when military women have a strong desire for menstrual suppression (66 percent of 500 respondents to a survey), only 21 percent reported using continuous combination oral contraceptives (COCs) to achieve it. The difficulty of compliance with the daily pill regimen was one reason for the lack of use of COCs, according to the authors, who recommended more education on the topic.

An earlier study to document menstrual experiences and awareness of menstrual suppression during deployment was done in 2007 by Lt. Col. Lori L. Trego, PhD, CNM, Chief of PRMC Nursing Research Service in Honolulu.

• Menses are intensified during deployment.

• It is hard to take care of yourself during your period.

• Menstrual challenges include heat, dirt, and portable toilets.

• Menstruation is an inconvenience when you are deployed.

. . . military women surveyed were aware that hormonal contraceptives could be used to suppress menstruation. The concerns they voiced about both injectable contraception and continuous-use COCs included side effects, especially during deployment, the safety of continuous-use COCs and problems associated with missing pills. They were especially worried about possible emotional changes and weight gain associated with using hormonal contraceptives. Their level of interest in trying menstrual suppression ranged from none to a willingness to try it for one year.